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The Kurdish Conflict In Turkey

We've featured Benjamin Hiller before and he came back to us with this report on the Kurdish situation in Turkey. As they say, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. These are Banjamin's images and descriptions.
The current Kurdish uprising all over Turkey after the traditional Kurdish Newroz festivity (Kurdish New Year) on the 20th of March 2011, as well as the normal living conditions of Kurdish people and refugees. The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has now been fought for more then 30 years. More than 40.000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, several million Kurdish people are classed as Internal Displaced People in Turkey. Several thousand additional people got killed by paramilitary and right-winged Turkish groups like JITEM. Today there are still more than 4.000 political prisoners in Turkey and the clashes and fightings are going on. It is a conflict on an high level but without broad media coverage, as Turkey is in the NATO and an important partner for the EU because of is geopolitical position. All images by Benjamin Hiller and Beate Rudolph. Read more

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A street battle erupts in Diyarbakir after the call for a civil uprising. Since the uprising more than 600 people got arrested, one 15 year old boy shot and several hundred people injured. Photo by Benjamin Hiller

A man walks out of a massive cloud of tear gas at the Peace Park in Diyarbakir. The park was attacked via military helicopters. They threw military gas bombs onto the ground. Dozens of people collapsed. Photo by Benjamin Hiller

A Kurdish women, masked and in traditional Kurdish clothing, during Newroz in Diyarbakir. More than one million Kurdish people attended Newroz in Diyarbakir, making it a big political statement Photo by Benjamin Hiller